The Dreamer of the World
by imdrowninginfootwear
Summary: Cobb wakes up at a mental hospital with no memory of what happened before that day. He tries to figure out what's going on while locked in his room and whether he's really crazy or if he's dreaming. Could he really have imagined what's become the future?
1. The Hospital

Cobb woke up in a hospital bed completely confused, yet fully alert from natural instinct, you never know when you could still be dreaming he went to grab his little silver top, but it wasn't there. He got out of bed to look for where his clothes were stored; he always keeps his top in his pocket. There was a little closet in the end of the room and he opened it to find his clothes, but no top.

Still unsure on what was going on Cobb went to leave the room and find out where his top was, but the door was locked. What the hell kind of hospital keeps their doors locked so the patientsare held prisoner? He was sure now that he must not be dreaming because he can't dream normally anymore, and he would be dressed in normal clothes with his silver top if he were asleep, right?

He began to search around the room looking for a call button, they'd have to have a call button wouldn't they? What if he needed serious help? He could not find one though and this was concerning, he tried to think back to being admitted to the hospital, but he couldn't remember. He tried to figure out why he had come to the hospital, but yet again a complete blank.

How am I supposed to get out of here? I can't sit here wondering what's going on without anything to do or else I'm going to go crazy, thought Cobb. He walked into the washroom going to check for a window, not sure whether he planned to try and escape or try and see if he could see something familiar outside.

Unfortunately there was no window so he decided to go sit on the bed and try and figure this out. He looked around and saw no machines or anything slightly medical in the room. The white design and the hospital bed had thrown him off making him believe that he was in a hospital, now he wasn't so sure.

He began to get very nervous and started pounding on the door as loud as he could yelling as loud as he could, "Hello! Is there anyone out there? Please! I don't know what's going on! Please someone help me!"

After a minute and a half after he began pounding he heard a key unlocking the door. Thank god thought Cobb. The door opened and a woman entered the door in a nurse's outfit. As she stepped out of the shadows Cobb instantly noticed that the woman looked exactly like Mal, no she _was_ Mal. But how the hell could that be possible? Mal's dead, and he's already discovered he's not dreaming. He just stood there staring at her not moving for a whole minute before she finally interrupted his thoughts.

"Andrew, what's wrong, why were you calling for help?" Asked Mal, no not Mal, her voice was too different.

"Who the hell is Andrew, where the fuck am I, and when can I leave?" Cobb asked

"You're Andrew, that's your name and you're at-" the nurse started before Cobb interrupted her.

"My name is not Andrew, its Dom," replied Cobb angrily, "Besides who the hell are you bitch? Think it's funny impersonating Mal then pretending you don't know who I am? Did you really think I'd fall for that?" He asked angrily dropping his face into his hands.

"My name is Anna-Leigh, don't you remember me? I've been your nurse here at Valiant Benson Mental Hospital since you've been checked in. Plus your wife's name was Dolores, not Mal," replied the nurse.

Cobb looked back up at her face to see if she was joking, but was shocked to see that the woman who stood before him no longer looked like Mal, not even slightly. She was a tall muscular woman in her early thirties with long, straight, red hair and freckles. How had he thought she was Mal, is he dreaming?

"What the hell? You aren't the same girl who walked in are you? And are you honestly trying to convince me that I'm in a damn mental hospital? Are you kidnapping me or something? And who the hell is this Dolores bitch?" Cobb blurted out, not waiting in between questions for an answer screaming out any question that popped in his head and waiting for all the answers in a clump.

The girl looked scared and like she didn't know what to say she started slowly backing towards the door, but Cobb cut in front of her grabbing her arm, "Oh no, you aren't leaving until I get some answers!"

The girl pulled a syringe out of her pocket and quickly stuck it in his arm injecting a very strong sedative into him. The last thing he heard was Anna-Leigh saying, "It's Andrew, he's made himself another personality, this one's violent, I managed to get him sedated, but," and then everything turned black.

He woke up hours later unsure of the time, unsure of whether any of that had really happened or if it was a dream, that is until he sat up and looked around the room, this was real and he needed to figure out what was going on, judging by the fact that the only source of light was a small light in the corner casting most of the room in shadows he figured it was probably night time. He'd never dream walked before without the correct technology, but he figured that if he could get into the mysterious self-proclaimed nurse's dream then he could figure out what's going on and make his own kick. And if he couldn't, at least he'd be out of this hell-hole.

He didn't remember falling asleep, but he instantly knew he was dreaming, he could tell it wasn't his dream even without his silver top because this dream was oddly constructed. He was there, only it wasn't him, or at least it couldn't be, because he was dressed in fifties clothes. The nurse was also there and she was in an apartment with pictures of family, hers and they all looked like her. But there was something else, weird old machines that he had never seen before that he knew, he just knew beyond explanation that he couldn't have even imagined these things, not even subconsciously.

The nurse turned and looked at him, the real him, and began screaming for help. Memories rushed by of Cobb, the fifties Cobb. He was crazy in these memories he thought he was multiple people, and he killed a nurse. But, not just any nurse, her best friend, he didn't know how, but somehow he felt it as if he was her. Then he saw a memory of the nurse being told on the phone by a doctor that Andrew had been behaving perfectly well lately. "He even knows who he is, he's been responding to Andrew, I'm transferring him to your wing, if anything comes up just call me," said the doctor.

Cobb saw one more memory before Anna-Leigh came rushing at him shoving backwards screaming, while the fifties him laughed. He'd found a kick all right, moments later he awoke wondering what the hell was wrong with that lady, she's the crazy one. Even if the first memories were true, the last one made absolutely no sense. When she was talking to the doctor about trying to get Cobb transferred, it couldn't have been, and no it wasn't Arthur. Or was it? Either way he resisted transfer saying he would come visit Andrew the next day, so if this lady wasn't insane he'd be seeing the doctor soon.


	2. Dr Balli

Cobb woke up to a not so friendly voice hours later.

"Andrew, Wake up!" Anna-Leigh said very loudly as she shook his whole body trying to get the man up. "Dr. Balli is going to be here any minute and you have to be awake!"

That woke Cobb up pretty fast, so it was her dreams he was in. And that meant that this 'Dr. Balli' is Arthur.

He jerked out of bed just as Dr. Balli walked in the room dismissing Anna-Leigh. "So Andrew I hear that you're going by the name Dom now," he stated.

"Arthur you know my name is Dom Cobb, after all we've been through you have to know after all we've been through together," Cobb pleaded.

"My name isn't Arthur, its Benjamin Balli," Responded the doctor, "But I'd like to hear more about this Arthur and you two's adventures," he finished with a little too much excitement in his voice for Cobb's taste.

"Man for a supposed wack shack the staff here are nuts," Dom said.

The rest of the session went much the same way with Dr. Balli asking questions about Arthur and Cobb refusing to answer.

That is until Cobb starting asking the questions, "I'm really thirsty, can I get a Diet Coke?"

"What's that?" The confused Doctor asked.

"It's the same as Coke, but without sugar . . ." Dom said sarcastically, "What rock have you been living under?"

The doctor decided that if he could get Andrew comfortable he might begin to answer questions, "What does it look like can you draw it for me?"

"Sure if that means you'll go get me one," Cobb replied.

A few minutes later the doctor was looking down at Cobb's very detailed picture, "You're a great drawer!" He commented enthusiastically.

"I used to be an architect, you know that Arthur," Dom replied confused.

"Oh, well I didn't know that you could draw other things so well," The doctor replied playing along hoping to get some more information from the man.

After the doctor left he instantly looked at the picture of a can and decided that he could make this, the design was easy, plus it says coca-cola on it, so he knows that it's a cola. All he had to do was figure out the ingredients for cola and not put sugar in it right?

Normally he would given up at the thought of trying to find the ingredients, but his sister's husband had a friend he'd met at the wedding who had worked in a cola factory.

It took Dave a lot of persuasion to get the ingredients from his friend, in fact the equivalent of three of Benjamin's monthly pay checks. Which caused him to wonder if this was really a good idea? Was it really worth all this money to help one patient? But at the same time, something compelled him to help this one patient more than any others, maybe it was because he reminded him of his dead brother, maybe it was to get rid of his annoying personalities, maybe it was because of how rewarding it felt when he responded to Andrew. Whatever it was, it pulled Dr. Balli in.

**A/N: ****I know this chapter's really short and has taken a long time. But the lack of reviews is making me lose my motivation. Does nobody like this story? Please review if you think I should continue this story, or I may not.**


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